My thoughts on the autograph session 29 March 2013

[Ray4AJ]

Skip down to the second paragraph for the actual event description…

It’s going to be hard for me to match the other members’ descriptions of the event. They’ve covered the logistics of it well, so I’ll skip that. For me, being there was really special. It’s just been 11 months since I discovered Alizée. The way I feel about myself has dramatically changed since then, and I attribute that to her, somehow. I can only guess how that happened, but I’ve stopped analyzing it. I see a really good person inside her, and to try to pay her back I try to support her career. Watching videos, En Concert, all the interviews and reading about old interviews and translations has created that image of her that have. I was having a bit of trouble fully believing that image because I know that what viewers see is only what you are shown, and sometimes that can be misleading. I suppose it’s been important to me to find out that she is ‘real.’ I got a slight confirmation of reality a few weeks ago when I got the Talents France Blue CD and posted a picture of it on Instagram. The next morning I was happily surprised to see that she ‘liked’ the posting. It was as if for just a moment, she had let me know she was real. I know, it sounds corny, but Scruffy and Jake can confirm that I am. I had been thinking about going to an autograph session since she announced the album on the ‘live’ Q&A video that came out last summer. At first we thought it would be in October, then it kept being delayed. I never wanted to go to Paris, or Europe, or anywhere. I was fortunate that right now I was able to take time off from work and afford the trip. I felt that if I missed this opportunity to ‘meet’ her that I would regret not going. So off I went. During my connecting flight from London to Paris, I kept thinking that I could not believe I was actually going to France. Scruffy met me at the train station and on the ride into town, I kept saying the same thing. Even though I was able to see many of the famous and significant sights of Paris, I was there for one reason. That came the next day at the FNAC Saint Lazare . So I wouldn’t be disappointed, I never thought we would get a private session with Alizée. I hoped we would so I would be able to get a lot of great pictures of her. But I knew I’d be happy just waiting in the regular line. Scruffy has already described the ups and down of the lead-up to the session. So it was off to the regular line for me.

We were in the room already when she made her entrance and we caught a brief glimpse of her entrance, but were too far back to see her posing for the cameras. It was really exciting to know she was in the same room we were in. They had the ropes set up like a back and forth queue moving side to side through the room, so the front row was a 15 minute show just 10 feet from her. From the back though, we were all holding our cameras up to try to see her up front. Finally I gave up and just waited until we got closer to try for some camera shots. There was so much excitement among the fans. It was amazing once we got to the front row. Just watching her interacting with each fan as if they were the only two people in the world. Everything I had thought about her seemed to be true. I’m amazed that she did it for 3.5 hours. We started discussing who would take each others photos when the time came. Loose plans were made. Closer and closer to the front of the line. It almost seemed like my turn came too quickly. I wasn’t really ready. I had written my name on a slip of paper. I remember saying I had come from the USA to see her, and she pronounced my made perfectly. She may have said something else but I don’t remember. I had written a short note in a card, and I had found a Tinkerbell bookmark a few weeks ago that I included in an envelope which I gave her (It appeared in the photo she posted! Yay!) Then I handed my camera to the manager guy and went around right beside her for the photo. I hadn’t set the camera right and the photo didn’t come out too good. So for a moment in time, I was in the same place as she was. So she’s about as real to me now as this keyboard that I’m typing on. I threw her a ‘merci,’ grabbed my camera from the guy, and just sort of drifted away out the exit. When I got back into the store, I was in a daze. No one else came out for several minutes. I guess I could have stayed with the group but they had been forgotten. (Sorry guys!) Then it was back to waiting to see about getting the 80 CDs autographed. We thought there was a chance that would happen after the line was gone, but it did not. I got the impression that they would all be signed though later this week.

Now, she’s real, and I feel like the impression I had of her was accurate enough. I spent some of the 8 hours on the plane yesterday thinking about it all. I realize that I still really know so little about her, but I’m as certain as I can be that she is a nice, thoughtful, and caring person. And that’s all I need to know. Her depth, her tattoos, her fashion choices, how she spends her free time… None of that matters to me. I just want to support her and her career by helping other fans learn about her and keeping her in people’s minds and hearts. She knows more about her industry and career and what she wants to make of it than any of us, and she does what she wants to do, no matter what we want. Not that there is anything wrong with us discussing how we feel about those things. We just have to realize that we aren’t going to influence her in what she does. It’s like she is driving the fan bus, and we can get on and off whenever we want. It goes where she takes it, take it or leave it.